Rediscovering obscure old songs from your youth

Isn't it fun when you do that?

I'm thinking about that because several days ago, I stumbled onto this wonderful song that I used to hear late at night on the AOR station as a tween in the late 1970s; they would play what we now call "deep tracks", and there were some songs that I never found out who did them or what they were called.

This particular one is "Fountains" by the Midwestern prog band Starcastle. I knew they had released two albums (and owned them at one time or another) but not that they had two others; this one is from their second, and by all accounts best, release.

As for what this sextet is doing now, they still do some nostalgia shows. Their first guitarist died about 10 years ago (cancer, I think) and the second guitarist looks like he might be an executive for a refrigeration company, and sure enough, he is. I'm mentioning this mainly because the keyboardist, Herb Schildt, is better known for his development and promotion of Java and C++ than he is for this. 1

Saw these guys live in 1976 around the time of their extremely Yes-influenced first album. They were the opening act at a huge stadium gig where they were followed by Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, and Jethro Tull.
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Saw these guys live in 1976 around the time of their extremely Yes-influenced first album. They were the opening act at a huge stadium gig where they were followed by Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, and Jethro Tull.

I posted on Facebook that if Yes and Styx had a baby, they would have named it Starcastle.

Their third album, "Citadel", was composed of short pop songs that were good but they were drifting away from the whole prog thing, at the urging of their record company (and the front cover appears to be festooned with penises, or do I have a dirty mind?) The fourth album was called "Real to Reel" and the chatter I heard online said it was crap and they wanted nothing to do with it. The songs I checked out from it were indeed awful, and you can't even download tracks from it on their website.
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Long, Tall Glasses - Leo Sayer ("I think I can DANCE! I think I can DANCE! I CAN DANCE!)

Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) - Reunion (I wish I had a nickel for every kid in school who almost passed out trying to sing that song [production trickery, it was]. When Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start The Fire," we all tried to substitute the words of one for the other. Neither version would work.)
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Long, Tall Glasses - Leo Sayer ("I think I can DANCE! I think I can DANCE! I CAN DANCE!)

Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) - Reunion (I wish I had a nickel for every kid in school who almost passed out trying to sing that song [production trickery, it was]. When Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start The Fire," we all tried to substitute the words of one for the other. Neither version would work.)

I completely forgot about this song until just a few months ago. I think someone on this board mentioned it and that triggered the memory of a 45 I had when I was really little, most likely purchased at a "rummage sale".

I can't remember what movie or TV show it was - a recent one, I know that - but they played a Cure song in the soundtrack. They were my favourite band in high school and I hadn't heard that song in years.
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I completely forgot about this song until just a few months ago. I think someone on this board mentioned it and that triggered the memory of a 45 I had when I was really little, most likely purchased at a "rummage sale".

I can't remember what movie or TV show it was - a recent one, I know that - but they played a Cure song in the soundtrack. They were my favourite band in high school and I hadn't heard that song in years.

It was used in the ill-fated American adaptation of "Life on Mars", the British fantasy series. In one scene, the heroes' childhood self is seen spastically dancing to it while his no-good dad (played by the guy who plays "Mayhem" in the Allstate insurance ads) laughs and applauds him while drinking.
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Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) - Reunion (I wish I had a nickel for every kid in school who almost passed out trying to sing that song [production trickery, it was]. When Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start The Fire," we all tried to substitute the words of one for the other. Neither version would work.)

I'm listening to that now; can't recall ever having heard it before. It also reminds me a lot of R.E.M.'s "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", which was not studio trickery.

The death of Scott Weiland has led to a lot of discussion about Songs I Remember From My Youth, and as for the original post, in the meantime I Googled yet another Starcastle alumnus (drummer Stephen Tassler, in this case), and guess what kind of links I got THAT time? The whole first page was for a family practice physician in the Chicago suburbs, and yes, it's him.

In case you're wondering if they ever performed with Rush, the answer is yes. That must have been one of the more unusual backstage scenes in the history of rock & roll. They also did some shows with Boston, and I think there were some Boston/Rush/Starcastle triple bills, per their website.
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I'm listening to that now; can't recall ever having heard it before. It also reminds me a lot of R.E.M.'s "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", which was not studio trickery.

The death of Scott Weiland has led to a lot of discussion about Songs I Remember From My Youth, and as for the original post, in the meantime I Googled yet another Starcastle alumnus (drummer Stephen Tassler, in this case), and guess what kind of links I got THAT time? The whole first page was for a family practice physician in the Chicago suburbs, and yes, it's him.

In case you're wondering if they ever performed with Rush, the answer is yes. That must have been one of the more unusual backstage scenes in the history of rock & roll. They also did some shows with Boston, and I think there were some Boston/Rush/Starcastle triple bills, per their website.

Exhuming an old thread: Dr. Tassler got his medical degree at Rush University. You can't make this stuff up.
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the second guitarist looks like he might be an executive for a refrigeration company, and sure enough, he is.

His name is Stephen Hagler, and he has a regular gig doing acoustic sets at a wine bar in the St. Louis area, where he lives and works. This bar has a Facebook page, and appears to have a, shall we say, mature clientele.
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So, I decided to pull up their AFAIK best-known song, "Lady of the Lake" and am listening to it right now. Someone on the message board said it made the "Bubbling Under" section of the Billboard Top 100, stalling at #101. It was almost certainly an edited version; I can't imagine a 10 1/2 minute song getting onto Top 40 radio, not even in the mid 1970s.

So, I decided to pull up their AFAIK best-known song, "Lady of the Lake" and am listening to it right now. Someone on the message board said it made the "Bubbling Under" section of the Billboard Top 100, stalling at #101. It was almost certainly an edited version; I can't imagine a 10 1/2 minute song getting onto Top 40 radio, not even in the mid 1970s.

In the early 70's I heard a song a few times on late night local (Nashville) radio and fell in love with it. A few years ago, through the magic of Google and Youtube, I found it again. The song is a bit overly emotional, but I loved it then and still love the singer's voice today. The quality of the recording is crap, as near as I can tell it was never professionally recorded.

When I was six years old (1973) the local radio station would play the song Singin' in the Kitchen a couple times a day. I loved that song! I googled it not long ago and discovered it was performed by Bobby Bare with his family. Ah, the good ol' days.

When I was 16 I would play guitar with a friend of mine. He played 6 string and I played bass. He was much more skilled than me, and he would teach me how to play rock songs. One of the songs was by the Japanese band Loudness. It was a great song, but for the longest time I couldn't find it because I forgot what the title was. After much searching I found it a couple years ago: Mr. Yes Man. Great tune.
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Funny, but I was just thinking of starting a thread along these lines after just having rediscovered Throwing Muses, which is a band I listened to a lot in college, but haven't listened to in so long I had completely forgotten they existed.
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Funny, but I was just thinking of starting a thread along these lines after just having rediscovered Throwing Muses, which is a band I listened to a lot in college, but haven't listened to in so long I had completely forgotten they existed.

I liked their album "Hunkpapa", and saw them in 1991. Unfortunately, the show was less than stellar.

Kristen Hersh is still performing, and published a book some years back about her battle with bipolar disorder.
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I went to a club in Seattle back in the late 70's with a cousin of mine. That band that played that night was called Gamma. Didn't recognize the guitar player till later in the show when he said he was going to play some of his early stuff. Suddenly realized it was Ronnie Montrose. I'll bet there wasn't 75 people in there that night. Most excellent show.
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I liked their album "Hunkpapa", and saw them in 1991. Unfortunately, the show was less than stellar.

Kristen Hersh is still performing, and published a book some years back about her battle with bipolar disorder.

I've seen both TM and Kristen Hersh many times. They are *not* to be seen for any sort of stage presence or dynamics. They pump great music out of the amps, but are otherwise motionless at the mic stands.

For the OP, I've been diving back into Grant Lee Buffalo who I was a little bit aware of and liked back in the 90s but got distracted by different music at the time.
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__________________
"He was shortish. And oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy."

When I was a kid in the early '70s, my dad gave my older brothers an ancient record player, the kind that came in its own carrying case and latched up, and a few old records - including some old 45s (there was a sort of plastic adaptor you needed to play 'em, which was lost, and replaced with a bit of cardboard). One of those 45s (it may even have been the original) had "the Witch Doctor Song" on it, with the "Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang" chorus. Left a big impression on my six year old self. We played the shit outta it.

Flash forward to yesterday - my kid was singing in the bathroom while washing up - and he was singing the "Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang" chorus. I have no idea where he heard it.
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This probably doesn't count as an obscure song, but as a kid I heard the song Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride a few times and I thought it was great. Over the past 30 years, I never heard it again and I thought it was called something like "If I had Johnny's Paycheck and I had Johnny's Cash". But now thanks to Google and Youtube I can listen to it all I want now.
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I like to buy old LPs at yard sales and such, and what you describe happens every once in a while (not so often now as it used to)... I've rediscovered songs such as "It Doesn't Matter" by Manassas, "The Legend of the USS Titanic" by Jaime Brockett, "Open My Eyes" by Nazz, "Omaha" by Moby Grape, and "Hey Man" by Rare Bird... all stuff that got FM airplay back in the early 70s.

There is also the occasional tune that got regional AM airplay when I was in high school but never charted nationally. One example I recently excavated is "Mixed Up Guy" by Joey Scarbury, a Jimmy Webb song that is perhaps better known from Dusty Springfield's version, "Mixed Up Girl".
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Are you sure that's the title? Not to nitpick, but Titanic was an RMS (Royal Mail Steamer), not a USS.

Is this the song (popular among some folk in 1912) about the black guy who survives the sinking of the ship?

That is in fact the title... and it does use the old Leadbelly song "The Titanic" as a jumping-off point, referring to the fighter Jack Johnson, who (according to legend) was refused passage. But it's more along the lines of "Alice's Restaurant", albeit more manic... an extended comic narrative presenting a fanciful explanation for why the ship hit that iceberg.
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That is in fact the title... and it does use the old Leadbelly song "The Titanic" as a jumping-off point, referring to the fighter Jack Johnson, who (according to legend) was refused passage. But it's more along the lines of "Alice's Restaurant", albeit more manic... an extended comic narrative presenting a fanciful explanation for why the ship hit that iceberg.

Brockett's version is deliberately ahistorical -- the ship sails from NY to the UK, for instance.

I liked that song "Flagpole Sitta" by the band Harvey Danger and got their full album Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? as one of my 10 CDs for a dollar or whatever from Columbia House. I don't think it went in to my main rotation (you know, the 30 CDs you could fit in your CD wallet?) and I didn't give the band much thought after that.

A few years ago I re-discovered the album, as well as the next two albums the band released. They are all great and I love them!

Sadly, I also found that the band had broken up just a few years before I re-discovered them. Bah.
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My youth was early/mid70s and those songs do bring back a lot of nostalgia. Not for anything specific, just for having been a kid in those years.

I am rediscovering a lot of the singles while exploring amazon digital music loading my newish iPod. A lot of them are on 70s collections and one-hit wonder compilations. Andrew Gold "Lonely Boy" was the latest, but also things like Wildfire, Welcome Back, Dream Weaver, Cool Change... those are the best!
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My #2 all time favorite is Classical Gas by Mason Williams.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mREi_Bb85Sk
The obscure part being I remember hearing ( or seeing ) it when it premiered on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and the music was overlaid with a video montage of classical artwork, each lasting for only a second or less but timed to the music. My understanding is that the video no longer exists (somebody please prove me wrong). I have tracked down many re-runs of the TV show, but that one has never been among them.

I remember this from watching old Warner Brothers cartoons as a kid. It wasn't
until today that I learned this piece had a name. The part starting at 1:28 was
probably used most often.
Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse"

__________________
"If a person saying he was something was all there was to it, this country'd be full of rich men and good-looking women. Too bad it isn't that easy.... In short, when someone else says you're a writer, that's when you're a writer... not before."Purveyor of fine science fiction since 1982.

When I was around 6 or 7 years old, there was occasionally this song on the radio that I absolutely loved for some indescribable reason. I remember this time I was listening to it and I was utterly entranced, and my little sister ignorantly grabbed the dial on the radio and switched it to another station. I freaked out and begged my mother to get the song back, but she couldn't find the station in time. She asked my father if he had that song in his LP collection, but, alas, he didn't.

I didn't hear that song again for a good 20 years or so. I had no idea who had sung or composed it. I could only vaguely remember the melody.

Then, one day a few years ago I was driving at night, and I had a classic rock station on, and Roy Orbison's "You Got It" came on, and I realized that that was the song I'd loved and never quite been able to remember.

(I went through a slightly less traumatic experience forgetting and remembering the Who's "Bargain" between when I heard it as a kid and rediscovered it as an adult.)
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